The invention relates to a two-dimensional 
direction of arrival estimating method based on a 
planar array and an estimator. The two-dimensional 
direction of arrival estimating method includes the steps that a decoupling model ( F=AL (alpha)*G (beta)+N ) of 
planar array received signals is built based on the first 
direction of arrival alpha and the second direction of arrival beta, wherein F represents the 
planar array received signals, AL (alpha) represents a manifold matrix related to the first direction of arrival alpha, G (beta) represents a 
signal matrix related to the second direction of arrival beta, and N represents a 
noise signal matrix; on the premise of alpha domain sparsity, alpha domain sparse reconstruction is carried out on the planar array received signals, so that a support set of alpha domain sparse signals and an alpha estimated value are obtained; on the premise of beta domain sparsity, beta domain sparse reconstruction is carried out on a 
row vector, corresponding to the alpha estimated value, in the 
signal matrix G (beta), so that a support set of beta domain sparse signals and a beta estimated value corresponding to the alpha estimated value are obtained. Alpha and beta are sequentially estimated by using the 
spatial domain sparsity, in an alpha domain and a beta domain, of the incident signals, and therefore 
computation complexity is reduced substantially.